From busso downunder, what a great seven years. Mikes term "morph" is a good one because SPCR is not was it was 7 years ago and it will be different 7 years from now....But what a site. I am in my late 60's had my first computer in 1989 however they were always so bloody noisy.
Maybe 5 years ago I discovered SPCR and computing took off again.
I learnt so much about noise and how to get rid of it from this site I will be forever grateful.
Great 7 years I hope I learn just as much in the next 7 years

Congratulations. SPCR is one of the finest and most useful sites on the internets.

As for the future, I think there is still a lot to be done. Although eventually silent PCs will become mainstream (perhaps they already are, looking at the EeePC etc) there are still many of us who want a more powerful system, but also want to keep the noise down.

The forums in particular are invaluable for this. Take for example the epic fail that is the power management on ATI 48x0 cards. Performance wise they are killer, but compared to the previous generation the power management is non-existent. Only SPCR bothered to cover this aspect in any great detail.

Congrats, Mike! And thanks also to Devon, Lawrence and the other reviewers and contributors!

I agree that computing is moving away from hot CPUs and ATX sized cases, but miniaturization will mean more 60mm, 40mm and (heaven help us) smaller fans. Unless the designers (and consumers) value silence, they will just be making small, low-power and noisy devices! You won't run out of products to review any time soon.

Thank you Mike and everyone else at SPCR. I've been an avid reader and devotee of silent computing for the past 5+ years and I can blame you guys for the majority of it. You provide a special niche that honestly no other website out there compares to. It'll be a very sad day when this place closes down, so I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon! There's so much ignorance and false information out there in the enthusiast world of computing regarding silence and you guys are the #1 to trust imho. Here's to another seven years (or more!)

Give it time - and probably less than you think. You can now build a mini ITX that will play Blu-Ray off of a Pico PSU. On one hand, whoop dee do. On the other, had you predicted that 3 years ago, you would have been classified as stark raving mad.
There are trends toward efficiency in both power requirement and size. There is also a growing awareness of how much computer is needed. For most users, whats needed is a fraction of last year's state of the art. There are no 'must have aps' that require more computer - Only games come close.
I'm not saying the fire breathing tower is done. I'm saying it's headed toward niche status.

Ender17 wrote:

I don't see tower PCs going anywhere for a long time. Look at gaming - there isn't anything portable close to the performance you can get with a triple card setup.

I agree that computing is moving away from hot CPUs and ATX sized cases, but miniaturization will mean more 60mm, 40mm and (heaven help us) smaller fans. Unless the designers (and consumers) value silence, they will just be making small, low-power and noisy devices! You won't run out of products to review any time soon.

Yeah the first thing that popped in to my head is the fact that my laptop, while consuming 1/6th as much power as my desktop, can actually produce more noise when it ramps up the fan, such as when doing a CPU-intensive activity. With laptops accounting for >50% of sales this year, it would be nice if SPCR could use its connections to get some loaner notebooks from the various manufacturers. It would be interesting to a lot of people to see just how much noise a lot of laptops make when they actually run applications that USE all the available computing power. I'm guessing at least 35db at full tilt for many laptops.

PC are going to be noisy for a long time yet, and so long as most OEM computers use cheap noisy parts, there will always be a market for people doing mods and upgrades to make things quieter. Long live SPCR!!

I too think SPCR will be around a lot longer. Systems might become smaller, but their components will still give off heat - including solid state drives. So they will still need to be cooled - quietly.

My nick and registration aren't my first here. I went without a pc for several months some years back (5 years ago?), and forgot silent pc review when pcs were at thier craziest...

Congrats, I really never forgot this favorite place to go. A specific thanks is the lead to a cpu heatsink via an accurate review here. I hope it keeps going with honesty. Of course that means less donations by marketplaces , truth is worth it. Truth is rich in other ways...like a 2 dollar 87 subaru.

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